OPEN REVOLT

MAGA-Curious CBS Boss Hit by Damning Staff Verdict at ‘60 Minutes’

Multiple producers reportedly refused a key assignment.

Top producers inside 60 Minutes are actively shunning contentious assignments for fear that their MAGA-curious boss might interfere, according to CBS News insiders.

The newsmagazine’s latest internal firestorm erupted when a handful of producers outright passed on working alongside newly minted correspondent Ross Douthat on an upcoming profile of Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

TUNING OUT

MAGA-Curious CBS Boss Hit With Devastating ‘60 Minutes’ Blow

Briana Charles

Insiders cited deep-seated fears of partisan interference from Editor-in-Chief Bari Weiss, whose hands-on meddling has repeatedly sparked open mutiny across the newsroom, according to Status.

The candidate’s campaign harbored its own severe doubts after CBS News chief legal correspondent Jan Crawford publicly cheered a conservative activist online who was pressuring El-Sayed to condemn the Muslim Brotherhood.

Though Crawford deleted her post and apologized for violating network standards, Weiss personally stepped in to veto any meaningful disciplinary action, determining the apology was enough despite other executives demanding a harsher penalty, Status reported.

The blatant leniency nearly torpedoed the crucial battleground interview. While producer Keith Sharman eventually agreed to take the assignment and the sit-down was conducted last Thursday in Michigan, the episode marks just the latest clash in Weiss’ turbulent tenure.

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Sharman was recently promoted to senior broadcast producer under executive producer Nick Bilton after longtime producer Debbie DeLuca Sheh retired, according to an internal memo.

Meanwhile, the flagship show has been bleeding viewers, last week’s program attracting just 5.65 million viewers, the lowest in years, with the key 25-54 demographic particularly badly hit.

The current breakdown echoes a similar flare-up earlier this month, when legendary correspondent Lesley Stahl privately floated quitting after “extraordinarily contentious” screenings with Weiss and top deputy Charles Forelle, who suggested tabling Stahl’s report on West Bank settler violence.

Sources revealed, “They didn’t know if it was going to air because the screenings got so heated” before the segment finally made it to air.

The saga also mirrored Weiss’ intervention in a December report on El Salvador’s CECOT megaprison. Weiss wanted to give the Trump administration more time to comment, but it didn’t. She was accused of being politically partisan, and the episode led to correspondent Sharon Alfonsi leaving CBS, with her contract not being renewed.

The Michigan segment featuring both El-Sayed and Republican opponent Mike Rogers is due to air on Sunday evening, two days before the midterm elections, but staffers expect the finished product to face intense scrutiny given the network’s troubled history covering progressive candidates.

CBS has been contacted for comment.

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Leigh KimminsReporter

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